Cape Fear

I don't know why I haven't seen the original Cape Fear, I'm a complete nut for Robert Mitchum, and Gregory Peck is pretty amazing too. And it was so cool that Scorsese worked them into his version of the movie, which I thought was pretty outstanding. Most of the time, I am a very anti-remake person, but I feel like this is one of those rare exceptions where a remake can be justified. And since I haven't seen the original, I'm not really an authority on the differences between the two films, other than that I assume the new version HAS to be a whole lot different than the old version, based on all of the sexual elements to it. And what makes this film so good is that I could understand all of the characters and there wasn't that really Hollywoodized binary of good and evil. Granted, there is a distinct good/evil setup in this film, but the fact that I can understand why Max Cady wants to make Sam Bowden and his family's lives a living hell, and while his actions are completely sadistic, as a character he has depth, and it becomes less of a cheering on the good guy to kill the bad guy kind of thing and more of a sort of voyeurism, looking in on these lives and wondering how they will work out.

Robert DeNiro is a god, plain and simple, and whenever he works with Scorsese (also a god) it's solid gold. This was an extremely dark and disturbing film (holy shit that kiss with Juliette Lewis and DeNiro! I couldn't beleive it!) and in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, it could have been awful. But the script was really great, so actually, I don't know about that. Anyway, the film is excellent and you should see it.

Jarhead

I finally saw Jarhead the other night. I'd been wanting to see it since it came out, but due to certain people wanting to see it, and then always backing out at the last minute, and me being the nice guy I am, I waited until it was too late. So I finally just netflixed it and goddamnit, this is an excellent film. I can't quite figure out why this film is so maligned...oh wait, yes I can, because "there was no action!", or something like that. Right? That's why my dad HATED it, that's why my mom thought it was uninteresting. Just a bunch of guys waiting around. And I guess that's just my bread and butter, seeing these interactions with people in a very uncomfortable and fucking terrifying situation. Regardless of how gung ho some of these guys are, there are probably more who really scared. Like Swofford, who admits to a news reporter when he is being interviewed that he is scared. "Why are you in the Marines?" the reporter asked, "I got lost on my way to college," he responds. And while he's the only one to really voice his opinion of how he's really feeling, you can see it on these guys faces. Mostly because they're all so young, and I think that is what this film is about. The effects of war on these guys, what Vonnegut might have called "The Children's Crusade." These guys, who go over and wait for an inevitible war, not quite sure of what they're fighting for, or what exactly what they are defending. Just that they are there, doing as they are told.

It's really refreshing to see a movie like this compared to every other blood and guts war movie that really likes to glorify the whole experience. Come to think of it, a lot of those films are anti-war movies, but you can usually bet that any major studio mainstream war flick is gonna be good for a ton of explosions, blood, guts, and a big heapin' dose of American pride. Jarhead isn't exactly an anti-war movie, it's a lot like the documentary Gunner Palace in the sense that we basically get a group of people (or characters) and just observe what they're going through. And then we're left to draw our own conclusions. But then again, Jarhead is still pretty left-leaning and yeah, I think any rational person can figure out that these Middle Eastern wars are a confusing mess and yeah, I think a lot of the soldier's get it too. Thankfully the movie is based on a memoir, and by anchoring the film in reality it has a completely different effect on the viewer.

I think Sam Mendes is pound for pound one of the best modern moviemakers that we have and really did an excellent job with this film. But it's really the cast that makes this movie what it is. Jake Gyllenhal, who'da figured that he was a pretty damn good actor? I mean, everything I've seen him in he's been good. Donnie Darko, The Good Girl, and Brokeback Mountain, yeah, he's fine but there's something about his performance in Jarhead that really made it believable. He just got it right. And then Peter Saarsgard, who is great in everything he does, is great here as Swoff's sniping buddy and closest friend. Holy shit that sniper scene at the end, Saarsgard just knocks that out of the park. And then Jaime Foxx as the Staff Seargent was just fantastic, and again, since I haven't seen Ray I've never really taken him seriously. Scratch that, he was great in Collateral but he's goddamned fantastic in this one. And then the rest of the guys in the troop are great too. It's just a great cast, and it's what really makes this film great. It didn't seem fake to me, and that's really the most important part of the movie. This is an important film. You should see it.

Also, I just IMDBed the new Clint Eastwood movie Flags of Our Fathers and realized that he is actually doing the companion movie which focuses on the Japanese called Red Sun, Black Sand. I remember reading about that months ago and I was like "no way" but shit it's apparantly in post production. AND he used all Japanese actors! Ha, that shouldn't be surprising. And man, I fucking hate Paul Haggis, who co-writes both of these films, I mean, I think he's one of the most disgustingly mediocre-writer-who-thinks-he's-so-fucking-great writers. No matter how many awards Crash wins, I still think it is one of the most unchallenging films I have ever seen. If ever there was a film that just spoon fed you everything, it's that movie. Guess what, racism is BAD, and HEY! Everyone is racist, not just white people! Oh man! Who'da thunk it huh? And hey! Why don't I steal the structure of Robert Altman's Short Cuts (which was stolen much more effectively by Paul Thomas Anderson in Magnolia) and think I'm so fucking original. Sorry, off topic, I mean to say that, regardless of this fucking hack writer, Eastwood, his Republican ties aside, is probably going to make a couple of really interesting movies. I think Million Dollar Baby is tonally and photographically a very rich film and I really do enjoy how Eastwood makes a movie. And yeah, he just redeemed himself, making the counterpoint movie. Ok that's all.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

I got really frustrated when I found out that the public library did not carry such a seminal horror film. I almost wrote them to see if they would order it, but wimped out when I couldn't justify my request. "I want to see some gory deaths, thx, Ian."

Cut to about three days ago. I'm on vacation at a resort in Durango, Colorado and they have IFC, which we don't have here. Excitedly, I noticed that Texas Chain Saw Massacre (the original, mind you) was playing that evening. So I finally got to see it without paying OR without swindling anyone. It was wonderful. And then there is the film itself, which kind of took my expectations and...did something very strange with them. The first hour or so went as expected, but I was confused. After 4 of the 5 teenagers had been killed off by Leatherface, I wondered where they could go from there. Honestly, I was disappointed that the kids got killed off so fast, but maybe I was just frustrated by the characters: cardboard cutouts of teenagers. You couldn't really identify with any of them and that idiot in the wheelchair, well, you wanted him to get it (and when he does, I think it is one of the best kills I've ever seen). It just wasn't scary to me. I think a film needs sympathetic characters for it to be truly horrifying, which is why I think Hostel is so good. These guys are enough like me, and have you know, dimensions that I can relate with. So when the horror hits, it hits me pretty hard. But here, it's just exploitation. And it's fun, there are some good jumps whenever Leatherface jumps out of some doorway and grabs someone, but about 45 minutes into the movie I was very "Eh." It wasn't really that scary.

And then the guy in the wheelchair gets it and everything changes. That kill, and the girl getting chased through the woods was masterfully done and completely fucking horrifying. And even though the girl just screamed, and she was some tall, pretty, blonde model looking thing, I was scared for her. And the third act of the movie is just so insane, so weird and uncomfortable, that I couldn't breathe. I was disgusted, and the more the girl screamed, the more scary it got. Tobe Hooper took me to a dark place and I liked it. It's such a cheaply made film but he makes the best of it and it looks great and yeah, it's pretty damn good.

The Final Cut

There's nothing more depressing than seeing a really incredible concept for a movie go to waste. Omar Naim had a really great idea and, when trying to adapt it to a screenplay, just completely failed. The film itself is an absolute mess! I absolutely love Robin Williams, especially when he's doing stuff like Good Will Hunting or One Hour Photo type performances, but here he's just completely... bland! I mean, he's supposed to be morose, he's a sineater for Christ's sake! How would you feel if you had taken on the entire memories of person after person? In the hands of a more competent director, he might have really knocked this one out of the park. And why is Mira Sorvino sleeping with him! THAT is the great mystery of this film, this completely creepy dude can hook up with Mira Sorvino. What was that all about? It made no sense.... like most of the movie. And the ending was just plain ridiculous, considering that the main conflict of the film was hardly compelling and the rising action consisted of the five minutes before the last scene. "Is that it?!" I asked myself. And it was.

Now, this is when I realized that if Omar Naim had sold his idea and let someone else write it and someone else direct it, this could have been a great film. It deals with the same kind of moral issues that Minority Report and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and those issues are really, really interesting. To me, at least, and if you look at those movies, you'll see that they were both really successful and extraordinary films. I feel that if Stephen Spielberg had directed this it could have been really incredible, and I think that is what makes this film so bad. The screenplay is half-assed and Naim's "vision" isn't nearly organized or compelling enough to make this film interesting. It's got some great moments, like the way our memories the way we remember them are sometimes different from the way they actually happened, and the immorality of giving an unborn baby one of the life recording implants.

Great concept. Terrible film.